Comments on: A new business model for a new generation of consumers

By: ModernDad

ModernDad — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:26:10 +0000

Whew, what you’ve written here Sarah is just awful. And not only because your piece is obtuse. The naked, aggressive, almost boastful amorality of it makes my skin crawl.

Here’s the problem when one starts with the hoary and dogmatic premise that “everything should be run as a business to make money”: Eventually you’ll be led into territory where certain aspects of your argument border on the sociopathic.

Consider this: Maybe “healthcare and public education” don’t HAVE “customers” and THAT’s the reason “there’s inherent confusion over who the customer actually is.”

Public Education isn’t a “business”. The VA, Medicare and Medicaid aren’t “enterprises”.

Duh.

Where does a person begin with such a terrible piece. Let me just take one or two parts of this egregious missive:

“Think about how much the battle over public education doesn’t revolve around the students.”: Actually, it does, when it comes to the individuals that TEACH them and PARENT them; not so much the “ed reformers” that want to profit from, eh…I mean selflessly HELP them!

“The fact that teachers aren’t able to be fired for poor performance, for instance.” You lie, Sarah. Or, you’re unaware of the truth. In my daughter’s public school we just fired three teachers for poor performance in the last two years, for instance. (You have to stop parroting Fox “News” and the WSJ editorial page. You really do.)

My daughter is in first grade. She’s not yet equipped to fight these battles and make these choices for herself. No, she DOESN’T get a vote, for the same reason she can’t yet drive, or choose a spouse; she could be taken advantage of. I act on her behalf until then. That’s called “Parenting”.

You may be a decent person, and a semi-talented writer, Sarah. But what you’ve spewed out here is offensive. Shame on you for your arrogance and your meanness of spirit.

By: gee.la

gee.la — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:33:48 +0000

New business means to serve the particular customer for the particular task in the particular time and the particular way to make the particular money.

By: Benny27

Benny27 — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:22:59 +0000

Quit moralizing about copying music. It isn’t stealing if you do not deprive someone else of the item in question. For instance, I never would pay for any music that I download. That is why I downloaded it in the first place. If I was going to pay for it, I already have. It should be painfully obvious that there is a difference between copying and stealing.

By: Adam_S

Adam_S — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:00:18 +0000

Interesting article. However, it makes me nervous. I’m not quite sure how to articulate this, and I myself am guilty of it, but I think there’s a definite discreet limit to how much of anything people need to be able to access ‘on demand.’ There is something to be said for waiting in line, traveling to a destination to do or get something, being forced to buy a textbook instead of rent one.

It seems that this is the way things are moving, and being 34 I’m right in the middle of it, and usually I love it, but it makes me nervous to think we’re losing a part of who we are, by being able to access so much by doing so little. We lose appreciation of things when we can have them whenever we want them.

By: Crash866

Crash866 — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:24:55 +0000

You make me sick

By: Adam_S

Adam_S — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:51:07 +0000

By: Technophile

Technophile — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:32:08 +0000

My head spins when I think back on my introduction to the world of high technology back in the late 80s when I lived and worked in Silicon Valley as a nondescript little grunt on the administrative side. Even before then, I was involved in the innovation of distance education and the use of educational technology in the classroom. I can barely keep up with all of the changes since then. I do know this, however…we are so enamored of the Machine — its wizardry, its efficiency, its speed its cost-effectiveness. Whether miniaturized or still big and clumsy, the computer and its cousin, the internet, have become so embedded in our hearts, minds, and souls, that we can barely live without them. This, to me, is a problem. We are becoming more atomized and more alienated from one another. You have only to watch millenials on a subway train, or in a coffee shop, or even at home with the parental units for dinner, as they relate more heavily to their devices than to the people around them. This cannot be healthy and I wonder how much we are distorting our humanity with our uber reliance on technological solutions to living. Those who know nothing of the good old days may never miss the good old days. But, during the good old days, most of our interactions were real, not virtual. At the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I am struggling to keep it real, even as I applaud advances such as Chegg.

By: trevorh

trevorh — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 08:04:08 +0000

On second thought, I think I have to take my previous joke back.

In this anemic economic condition, we need more ‘go getters’ and ‘can do’ people like the Ferengi to have something going, and we need less of the ‘dead-enders’, like me

Now anything is better riots on the street and people dying off in mass.

By: trevorh

trevorh — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 01:28:30 +0000

Wow, impressive!

This piece of opinion, especially the last 2 paragraphs, will no doubt pleases the Grand Nagus.

I think in the new Star Trek movie, they should use the plot in which captain Picard’s great great great grand-father Pikard lost all his money in a “business” transaction and died in destitution. Picard was never born.

As the timeline is disrupted, in the new timeline, the Vulcan declared Earth a lost cause and left the Ferengi to make first contact with human.

Now Spock has to send a temporal message to his great great great grand father Spaeth (not to be confused with the Bears’ TE Matt Spaeth). Spaeth goes to Earth to help Pikard recover the loss in the market. Obviously, Spaeth is no good at this. He lost all his money as well as his spaceship which was then reverse engineered.

This is how human discovered Warp Drive technology and made First Contact with the Ferengi.

Ok, joke aside, I have to admit this piece of opinion does indeed have the wow factor.

By: Technophile

Technophile — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 23:29:08 +0000

My head spins when I think back on my introduction to the world of high technology back in the late 80s when I lived and worked in Silicon Valley as a nondescript little grunt on the administrative side. Even before then, I was involved in the innovation of distance education and the the use of educational technology in the classroom. I can barely keep up with all of the changes since then. I do know this, however…we are so enamored of the Machine — its wizardry, its efficiency, its speed its cost-effectiveness. Whether miniaturized or still big and clumsy, the computer and its cousin, the internet, have become so embedded in our hearts, minds, and souls, that we can barely live without them. This, to me, is a problem. We are becoming more atomized and more alienated from one another. You have only to watch millenials on a subway train, or in a coffee shop, or even at home with the parental units for dinner, as they relate more heavily to their devices than to the people around them. This cannot be healthy and I wonder how much we are distorting our humanity with our uber reliance on technological solutions to living. Those who know nothing of the good old days may never miss the good old days. But, during the good old days, most of our interactions were real, not virtual. At the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I am struggling to keep it real, even as I applaud advances such as Chegg.